Posted on 03/01/2015 7:09:14 AM PST by TurboZamboni
The US Navy has been wowing people with electromagnetic railguns, a long-range electrically-powered weapon, in concept and prototype for years now. But the single big obstacle that keeps the railgun off boats remains the same as it ever was: ships cant generate enough power to fire them. At the Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo, Vice Adm. William Hilarides explained that three problems with the railgun remain: room on ships, integrating the new weapons with the old weapons systems, and poweras in, not enough of it. The railgun doesnt rely on chemical explosions like more conventional weapons. Instead, the projectile is housed in a electrically conductive metal armature, which connects two parallel, 30-foot rails. A huge 25-megawatt electric pulse is sent down the rails, creating the magnetic fields that shoot the armature and projectile out.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...
Oh, all they need is a wind turbine or solar panel and they could generate 25mw easily!
/sarc
LOL!
I guess when the ship runs out of "Megawatts" it's dead in the water by this author's logic.
and nuclear power.....?
Here is a rail gun test fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6sAUHwTP4A
At 1:24 you can see the shock wave around the projectile
as it travels.
They’re just gonna have to develop some Star Wars style power supplies then! ... :-) ...
They could do that. (mW vs. MW)
New capacitor technology could solve this.
The word ‘can’t’ is the sticker.
People are really smart, and eventually can’t becomes can, in a free society at least.
"Velocitas Eradico" - or in layman terms, "Speed Kills".
we’re so broke we’ve resorted to using connecting rods for ammo!
And more so in the other kind, by necessity.
Where is all the flame coming from, if exposives aren’t involved in propulsion?
That reminds me of the wave motion gun, which is also terrifying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phT2Vukvn0
the original Dora the Explora!
I saw that video when it first came out, and calculated that the projectile oscillations you can see in the down range view (the one in which the shock front is so clearly visible) are at a rate of about 60 hz.
It's what's left of the arc that is formed across the rear of the projectile (or maybe across the entire projectile in this case) following it as it leaves the mouth of the launcher.
Total conversion via matter - antimatter interaction would get the job done.
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